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Apple Reportedly Working on Online TV Programming Guide

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If a report on Recode is accurate, Apple's streaming video plans have been greatly downscaled. According to unnamed industry insiders, Apple is reaching out to broadcasters and publishers to create a universal programming guide for online TV. Right now, viewers have to search through multiple apps to find out if TV shows or movies they want to watch are available. A universal solution would let them search once, and then hand them off to the correct app once they've found what they're looking for.

Apple didn't comment on the story.

This isn't exactly groundbreaking, as some devices, like Roku boxes, already offer a universal search. For the search tool to work, Apple needs content providers to deliver metadata about their catalogs, but it remains to be seen whether or not content providers want to give Apple that much influence over the streaming video market. While a guide could drive more traffic to content apps, it could also get in the way of the direct relationship with the viewer that many content providers are trying to create. For now, this is little more than a rumor, and one getting more attention than it should because it's a slow summer Friday.

At its June Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple announced that it will add single sign-on authentication to the Apple TV, so owners don't need to repeatedly sign on to apps that require pay TV authentication.

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